America’s Biggest Problem? Unemployment

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Unemployment – and not the economy in general – ranked as the most important problem facing Americans for the second month in a row.

Now it's the job market, stupid.

Unemployment — and not the economy in general — ranked as the most important problem facing Americans for the second month in a row, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

When asked to name the biggest problem facing the country, Gallup poll found that 35 percent of Americans said “unemployment.”

That’s the highest percentage in more than a quarter century, since October of 1983.

The economy ranked second, with 29 percent of Americans saying it was the most important problem facing the country. Healthcare was third, and dissatisfaction with the government ranked fourth.

The fact that joblessness now worries people more than the economy in general marks a change from the early part of the economic downturn, when “the economy” was consistently mentioned as the top problem facing the country.

In the past year, the economy and unemployment have each sometimes ranked as the top problem in the monthly survey. But the Gallup pollsters said this month’s results clearly show that Americans seem most worried about getting people back to work.